The Abbott Donor Behind the “Abolish ICE” Campaign
Avila Chevalier Wants to Abolish ICE. Her Biggest Outside Backer Helped Elect the Man Who Bused Migrants to New York.
WASHINGTON — The man who helped elect Greg Abbott is helping fund the campaign of the candidate who wants to abolish ICE.
That is the money trail running through New York’s 13th Congressional District, where Democratic primary challenger Avila Chevalier has made opposition to immigration enforcement the centerpiece of her campaign — while the largest single funder of outside spending on her behalf donated $100,000 to the Texas governor whose migrant-busing operation dumped thousands of people onto the streets of New York City in winter.
The Donor, the PAC, the Half-Million
A super PAC called American Priorities launched a $500,000 media buy earlier this cycle supporting Avila Chevalier in her challenge to Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., according to Federal Election Commission filings. The group has pledged roughly $2 million across a handful of New York House races, with approximately half earmarked for NY-13.
American Priorities’ most significant individual funder is Hussein Mahrouq, a Texas businessman who has contributed at least $525,000 to the PAC — the money driving its New York ad campaign, according to reporting by Jewish Insider.
In 2024, Texas state campaign finance records show Mahrouq gave $100,000 to Abbott’s political operation and $25,000 to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. He has also financially backed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Thomas Massie.
What Abbott Did With That Money
Through Operation Lone Star, Abbott bused tens of thousands of migrants from Texas to New York City, Chicago, and Washington — often without advance notice, in winter, using human beings as instruments of political theater. New York bore some of the sharpest consequences: emergency shelters overwhelmed, families left on sidewalks, children separated from services.
The communities of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx that make up NY-13 — heavily Dominican, heavily immigrant — organized against exactly that enforcement architecture. Abbott’s program is not an abstraction in this district. Its effects arrived here.